From: robertaw@drizzle.com   
      
   This is the 8th Honorverse anthology. While the cover claims that the   
   stories are from the earliest days of the Star Kingdom of Manticore,   
   IMHO, 2 of the 5 stories don¹t qualify. However, those 2 stories do   
   feature two heroes of the RMN.   
      
   ³One Controllable Step² by Marisa Wolf(1)   
      
   A Beowulf medical team travels to Manticore to help fight the Plague.   
   They succeeded in creating a vaccine for it, though several team members   
   died the disease. The Bassingford that the RMN¹s chief medical center is   
   named after appears. BTW, the vaccine they developed failed several   
   years later when the virus mutated again.   
      
   ³Deadly Delusions² by Jane Lindskold   
      
   This is a prequel of ³The Stray² (which appeared in the 2nd anthology,   
   _Worlds of Honor_, written by the late Linda Evans). We meet the people   
   who were killed in that story in more happy times and two sisters, one   
   of which had an imagination that could be described as excessive.   
      
   ³The Great Condiment Caper² by Jacob Holo(2) with Thomas Pope   
      
   Ensign Edward Saganami, assigned to the Stores Division of the RMN¹s   
   first Dreadnought, the²Ad Astra², is ordered to help look for a missing   
   pallet of barbecue sauce (600 liters worth). Since this takes place   
   years after the first passage through the Manticore Junction, I don¹t   
   consider this to be early Star Kingdom, struggling to survive. This is a   
   baby titan, growing like a weed. BTW, Ensign Saganami found the pallet   
   and impressed his superior and a chief petty officer in doing so.   
      
   ³XO² by Daniel Allen Butler   
      
   Lt. Commander Ellen D¹Orville takes command of an RMN frigate when the   
   captain collapses due to a medical emergency (this takes place several   
   decades after the previous story). The baby titan I referred to in the   
   previous story is now old enough to kick ass and take names (which it   
   had done several years before in Silesia). D¹Orville has the opportunity   
   to do some kicking and name taking herself and does so. However, this   
   was in somebody else¹s star system whose government was loudly annoyed   
   (but several members of said government were privately thankful for her   
   intervention).   
      
   ³Crystal Singer¹s Song² by David Weber   
      
   This takes place a couple of decades after ³One Controllable Step².   
   Aldona (I believe that is her on the cover), a member of the Sphinx   
   Forestry Service, is delivering emergency supplies during a major storm.   
   Her transport is hit by a lightning bolt which took out all navigation   
   equipment; she ended up lost over the ocean and crashing on an unnamed   
   island. There she discovers a colony of treecats (note that this is   
   several decades before Stephanie Harrington discovered them) - how they   
   got there is a different epic of survival. She spends the rest of her   
   50+ years of life there, teaching the treecats some relatively advanced   
   techniques, such as spears and spear throwers, primitive agriculture,   
   pottery wheels, and klln-firing pottery. This is contained inside an   
   envelope story (3) involving Honor Harrington (said unnamed island had   
   been noticed and the treecat colony contacted several years before).   
   IMHO, this envelope weakens the story.   
      
   Notes:   
      
   1) I have heard that Marisa Wolf will be replacing the late Eric Flint   
   as the co-author of the books dealing directly with the Mesan Alignment.   
      
   2) I have heard that Jacob Holo will be writing more Edward Saganami   
   stories.   
      
   3) There is a reason why Honor was involved, but IMHO it would had been   
   better as part of an epilogue. BTW, upon consideration, I find it  Š   
   difficult Š to accept the premise that NOBODY had visited that island   
   (and it was fairly large, between Sicily and Tasmania in size) for more   
   then 4 centuries after Aldona crashed there. I don¹t care how close it   
   is to the southern ice-cap of Sphinx. It had forests and thus was part   
   of the responsibility of the Sphinx Forestry Service.   
      
   --   
   "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."   
   Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.   
   ‹-----------------------------------------------------   
   Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)